Tuning Samba for optimum performance

[David Collier-Brown]

"Cappellini, Tony" wrote:
> 
> Are there any resources available which describe how to get better
> performance out of Samba ?
> Would someone point me to performance tips for Samba ?

	The zeroth step: do a test using ftp, and see if the
	speeds are roughly comparable with smbclient.  They
	should be within an order of magnitude (base 2)!
	If not, Samba is at fault. 

	If they are both similar, and both slow, you have a problem
	with the network, some of which can be addressed by
	setting socket options within samba...


> Currently, on a P200 with a 100BT Ethernet connection, I'm seeing less than
> 1MB/S for large block writes to the Samba volume. If I run the SAME
> performance program on the that volume locally, I can get nearly 9 MB/S for
> large block writes.

	I see 766.561 kb/s from a filesystem NFS-mounted on the server,
	1.09696 kb/s from one locally mounted. Both server and
	client are Solaris 8, with 7200 rpm scsi disks.

	The basic information starts at 
	 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/samba/chapter/book/appb_01.html,
	but it's basic:  Kenichi Okuyama has investigated MS TCP/IP
	and has a heuristic for the window size settable with the 
	"socket options = SO_SNDBUF=X" Samba option.

Kenichi, can I quote you in a future issue of the "Using Samba" book?

--dave
-- 
David Collier-Brown,  | Always do right. This will gratify some people
185 Ellerslie Ave.,   | and astonish the rest.        -- Mark Twain
Willowdale, Ontario   | //www.oreilly.com/catalog/samba/author.html
Work: (905) 415-2849 Home: (416) 223-8968 Email: davecb at canada.sun.com